Bøker av Peter Lawler

The eleven essays in this collection examine the relationship between institutional structures and community integration, offering practical insights to increase social capital and strengthen social institutions.A variety of social institutions are analyzed. Three chapters cover political legal issues, two cover religion, three address education, and two examine the macrostructures of the military and the economy. An important collection for scholars and other researchers interested in the communitarian movement, sociology, and political science, particularly for those in public administration.

A small village that had existed for many generations in a remote valley was peremptorily destroyed in the late 19th century to build a reservoir, and the embittered villagers never accepted its loss. One of them had a vision which became their shared aspiration and guide. It was that the reservoir would be drained and their village restored. On their deaths, the people of the valley each retained spirit form and, while the majority retreated into the trees to await the realisation of the vision, three of them found themselves with the task of delivering it. Extraordinary measures for this extraordinary vision came into play to determine the outcome that ultimately transpired. Although the often conflicting endeavours of the chosen three were always instrumental in shaping it, other unexpected and influential forces emerged which utterly transformed it.

There is a crisis in America revolving around social and political life, and the contributors to this essay collection believe it has provoked a renewed attention to the issue of community in political thought.